Fragments
by outofthesun
Summary: In between Divergent and Insurgent, Four ruminates on the war. One-shot - T for minor dark themes.


She's sleeping, and war is coming.

We're not being attacked right now, sure, and she really did need some shut-eye, but I'd definitely struggle to drift off with the train shaking about beneath me, plus with my parents dead one after the other in a single afternoon and my brother who I thought I would never see again sitting opposite me. Oh, and the other thing of the world as we know it being completely shattered.

Then again, I can't talk.

Tris stirs beneath me, muttering restlessly, and I unconsciously stroke her head from its place in my lap. I don't feel tired; I feel wide awake. Thoughts go round in my head incessantly as Caleb rechecks his sister's shoulder wound. I might not be Erudite, but that doesn't make me stupid or stop me wondering what the hell we're going to do.

Amity? How can we go to Amity? It feels too much like fleeing. Both the selfless and brave parts of me are protesting; my Abnegation side says we have to help those still stuck, potentially dying, in the city. My Dauntless side wants to go in there guns blazing, use my training, and my muscles twitch involuntarily. I'd rather _do _something instead of sitting on a train; my hands want to hold a gun and shoot Jeanine Matthews, Max, Eric… anything but this. That aside, if the Amity try to make us obey by their rules then we'll probably get kicked out anyway; neither of us have aptitude for the hippy faction. Being able to play the guitar doesn't count (it was Zeke's fault. He dared me, and I just kind of got into it.)

We've all got to be strong – Abnegation and Dauntless both. We can't waver – we have to regroup and move. No time for sitting around on our butts, because you can bet that Erudite and the Dauntless traitors won't be. We need to get Candor on our side; Amity won't do anything, they'll just spout their usual nonsense about peace and remain neutral. The factionless…

I don't want to think about them. But eventually, I'll have to. Divergent are among them, and that automatically makes them a powerful force, one that we'll have to exploit in order to win. Erudite has our doctors and our scientists, and they also have some stolen soldiers. We're slightly bigger in terms of number of trained fighters, but you can bet that without doctors to patch them up, that number will go down very quickly if another battle erupts and it's more drawn out than the last… or at least not as one sided.

Damn it, I want to stop strategising. I want to be able to think of nothing.

Abnegation, like Dauntless, is shattered, and only a few members remain. But unlike the Dauntless they won't bounce back so quickly. They'll do what they can to help in Amity, maybe, but they won't fight, and you can be sure that they'll grieve. To be honest, if they go back to the city to do something (because that would be the selfless thing to do) it'll probably be just cleaning up the debris of the battle. Not that they have many members left. Most of Abnegation was shot.

Most of it.

_My father is still alive._

Unintentionally, I shudder. There's no time for this sort of weakness; I hold Tris a little tighter as the first bit of sunlight starts to drift in through the glassless windows. At least the train looks the same, its rust and shuddering familiar to my tense body.

"Four?" Caleb's voice is low and rough. I raise my head and lift an eyebrow. What does he want? I can't get a read off of Caleb, and I don't like it. He might be Tris' brother, but they're totally different, even if she does have an aptitude for Erudite like him. I don't know why I'm hesitating like this: of course, I'm not exactly a trusting person, but this is a bit stupid. Caleb's left Erudite, practically declared himself Abnegation again, and he's the only family member Tris has left, which should automatically make me want to keep in with him. Then again, I'm not Erudite, and maybe that's why I can't understand him.

"Yeah?" I'm quiet, too – don't want to wake Tris, who looks as if anything louder than a whisper would instantly send her into battle mode. It's totally different from the way she looked in my room after nearly being killed by Peter and his morons; vulnerable, at peace. What she must've looked like in Abnegation.

But I get the sense that Tris was always on the edge of things back there. Just like I was. So maybe she wasn't at peace, not really. In fact, I'm sure.

"Going to Amity won't help." I try not to sigh. I forget that Erudite, along with Candor, have a habit of stating the obvious.

"Not from a military position. But there's nowhere else until we can start negotiations with Candor. And to do that… I guess Dauntless needs to get together again. The non-traitor portion, anyway. Elect a leader or something."

"Then you'll go to launch an assault on Erudite." This makes him go paler, and makes me warier. If the idea is that bad to him, is he really loyal to us? If the thought of hurting his former faction is too horrible, then… I shake my head, not to his statement but at myself. Too suspicious for my own good.

"They started it. Seems only right that we should hit back, or else more people are going to die. Our people." I pause, more for effect than anything else. "And that includes Tris, you know."

"I know," answers Caleb. He looks a little green. "But in my estimation, this war won't be as easy as you think. Believe me, the Erudite are more prepared than you know. This has been years in the making." I smirk to myself – I can't help it – at his overly-formal language, typical of an Erudite. Except, I suppose, he isn't really one anymore apart from in attitude.

"Yeah, but we've got fighting spirit and a score to settle. It isn't going to be one sided this time, especially if we can get Candor to help us. Which they will, because the whole attack was completely unprovoked and if they have any sense of justice they'll help our side."

"Candor's trained military force is not as big as Dauntless's, Four." Part of me wants to yell at him for saying out loud what I've been thinking for a while – that even if Amity and Candor ally with us, it won't make much difference. But I just shrug.

"It's still help. Help that we need." The factionless enter my head again, and I close my eyes in exasperation. "Hey, are there any sleeping pills in that first aid kit?" It's one of the few items we're carrying besides guns.

"I don't think so." Great, no chance of sleeping then.

"Go lie down if you want. I'll keep watch." _Over Tris_, I silently add. More than allegiance to any faction, my loyalty is to her and only her. If she wanted to run away, maybe even go beyond the fence, I would follow her – no question.

Caleb looks at me for a little bit and then eventually nods. "Okay. Thank you." He sprawls out on the other end of the train and it's not long before his breathing slows. Finally, I can think without any chance of being interrupted.

In the end, though, I just think one thing.

_I hope we both survive this._

* * *

**A/N: **I really wanted to write something for this fandom, so this is what my muse came up with. If you liked it, please review - and I love constructive criticism. I actually find Four's character quite difficult to write as I'm Erudite and it was hard to not make him sound too wordy in his narration haha.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the read!


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